Tuesday, 27 November 2012

Post-Obzen, post-Myspace and post-got-djent the
cerebral world of math metal has attained a visibility and legitimacy that its
pioneers could not have predicted. In 2012, Meshuggah came to roost amid a sea
of extended range slinging, f-sharp toting, Axe-FX II wielding, DAW mastering,
self-promoting contenders. The stylistic preference of these latter day
adopters is prog-metal complexity punctuated by contrived variances on prime
numbers and odd against even meters. Frequently the result is a busy swirl of
digital mayhem cut and pasted to perfection. Meshuggah went the other way. So
did A Life Once Lost.

Ecstatic
Trance is the sound of a ‘core band gone ‘Shuggah. Trance sees the band putting
three and five and six against four, looping and droning with conviction and
groove. It is that latter element which to me makes the band ready to take on
the world as an ally of the superb Swedes, these guys dare to groove in a way
which is both primitive and intellectual. In fact, this makes sense as vocalist
Bob Meadows has said here:

It’s been forever since we’ve put a record out, and we
have a broader influence through our path. Whether it’s been the
kraut-progressive music scene of Europe, Germany,
and England, or the tribal,
rhythmic funk that comes out of Africa, or the dark, psychedelic stoner drone
that comes out of Japan…
Whatever music we got into, you’re going to hear a bit of it on this record.
But we could be shooting ourselves in the foot, too.

This next record is just us evolving even more so,
just growing up and getting older, allowing the influences of different bands
and musicians to influence stuff that we’ve done, whether it was bands from the
‘60s and ‘70s to the Afrobeat scene from Africa. It was our way to pay homage
to them through what we do metal-wise.

What
makes Trance so engaging is the guitarists tendency toward employing the
influences listed above instead of traveling down the now worn road of
Holdsworth aping. The melodic counterpoints drone, chime and writhe over the muscular,
grooving maelstrom underneath. Easily one of the grooviest metal albums of the
year.

Saturday, 17 November 2012

Recently while in Japan I read via Metal Sucks of a
flash in a pan controversy that brought quite a lot of social media attention
to Rings of Saturn’s new album Dingir.
The eye of the storm was around whether or not the band played at half speed
and then sped up the slow tempo recordings to match the desired BPM of the
overall composition. This had metal purists raging: “If you can’t play it live…”
and “Pro-tools/DAWs are such a crutch”. In my opinion the band’s response to
this controversy was somewhat less than optimum, they played the internet chat
room yell back in a loud voice and show outrage card. This for most of us who
have been on the net for a while equates to an admission of guilt. To me, the
truth of the controversy is less important than the questions it raises around
constructedness and authenticity in a post-album, post-label age of musical
consumption.

First of all, let me take you back to this post. Here I talked about metal
made by people who are not metal heads. That is, outsiders looking in. The
brief version is that metal created from outside positions runs a serious
authenticity risk: metal heads know their metal and they know if you are faking
it. Sometimes however, when the ingredients are just right, as is the case with
some of the aging djentlemen (Tesseract, Textures Vildhjarta), these products
are no longer a foreign form sounding similar to metal but rather a
sophisticated hybridisation which forces the genre into forms and directions
previously unknown and unimaginable. The linchpin of this experimentation is
technology. We can do now what was impossible. The same is true for what we see
and hear. It makes sense then that there is very much a possibility of
post-performance metal.

I use the term “post-performance” to refer a
burgeoning trend in which artists are rejecting the “play-you-ass-off-to-earn-peanuts-but-be-on-a-major-label”
paradigm. Ask any metal band these days how they make their money and the
answer will be “shows and merchandise”. The problem with this setup is that
without booking experience or a savvy agent, setting up a profitable run of
shows can be very difficult. Then there are unexpected disasters from the mild
(fuel prices go up, tour bus breaks down) to the wild (road accident, theft)
which can in a single event sink an operation running close to the break-even
mark.

Post-performance metal meanwhile adopts a different
logic. I came across this ideas after reading an interview with Dawnbringer’s Chris
Black on Invisible Oranges. Black
articulated an opinion quite at odds with the tour/merch trap outlined above. Due
to circumstances in his own life and personal preference, he chooses to eschew
touring and focus entirely on creating a memorable, high quality product.

As a child, music was to me something that you
experienced by radio, albums, or playing it yourself on an instrument. And that
usually meant experiencing it alone, so again, that’s just normal to me.

This is a man who literally is doing it all by
himself. He has created a fair relationship with the excellent ProfoundLore label and retains full control over his product.

Naturally there are exceptions such as Rise Above
Records who work hard to generate mystique primarily through performance. They
create supply and demand bottlenecks and have developed their brand to such an
extent that a new release is equivalent to a vinyl purchase.

So what does all of this have to do with Rings of
Saturn?

ROS, in spite of their youth, seem to be stuck in a
rather outdated metal mindset in which constructedness is a wholly negative
value and authenticity based on live performance (underground credibility) is
positive. Kind of like when straight dudes are called “gay” and go about
proving their hetero authenticity through displays of hyper masculinity (if
only they knew, huh?). ROS could have avoided this whole Metal Archives/ANUS trip
by taking a page from the djentleman’s textbook: DIY = constructedness and
attention to detail, a highly constructed end product holds value especially if
it has riffs, leads and ideas that shred. By refusing to position themselves
within the crippling discourse of pre-Twenty-first century metal authenticity they
would be able to exceed expectations and concentrate energies on perfecting
their sound and bringing innovation to metal from unexpected directions.

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

I have written elsewhere about the evolution of metal post-social networking.
My thesis can be summed: the increasing speed of dissemination is having a
profound influence on the number and types of musicological elements contained
in any single composition (let alone genre). Another way of putting this is to
say that metal's stylistic memes move more quickly and across a wider range of
genre landscapes than previously possible. Sometimes the sheer velocity of
information is so great that the listener may quite reasonably be unable to
relate musicological elements to each other or indeed to the broader concept of
metal as a whole. This raises an interesting question: are we seeing a perfect
post-postmodern articulation of infinite competing discourses (knowledges,
informations, personal narratives fixed through informational text
technologies) competing infinitely thus rendering the weight of history
insignificant?

Since metal as an aesthetic is evolving quickly and as new stylistic tropes are
stacked on top of, underneath and against each other as a banal occurrence, it
is becoming clear that historical roots are relegated to irrelevancy. Metal,
like jazz, has always been jealous of its heroes, its obscurity,
inaccessibility and independence. In the present, however, a first page google
search and a few wikipedia pages can in no time produce an armchair expert. The
dark edge to this is that even while the information is available it is in
competition, a type of competition so fierce and unfairly stacked against the
past. The vertical weight of respect and relevnace previously tipped toward the
past has shifted toward an ever emerging future being created amid a multimedia
textual maelstrom.

But "so what?", right? You know as well as I that a gnarly riff is
just that, regardless of its genre classification or stylistic association. And
here is where the truly complicating factor arises, the trajectory that remains
obscure to yours truly. Even in an informationally obese society where so much
is consumed through the eyes and mind and via myriad distractions the relevance
of music can only be apprehended aurally: it must be listened to for it to have
value. Where information can be assimilated in seconds, music as an act takes
time, after all is that not what rhythm is? Space between events?

Meanwhile, what are we metal heads to make of the environment of consumption in
the present. There is more music and more diversity than ever before and paths
through this landscape are undoubtedly more individualised and complex than in
the past. The so-called filters of the big record labels hardly apply anymore
as relevance coalesces around apparently quantitative measures such as “like”
buttons, re-tweets and obscure search algorithms based on links and
recommendations. Labels will continue to exist but not as big business, more
like patrons to the arts, a final expression of fidelity to the cause an
ethical, critical and aesthetic gesture to art.

Which leads me to my latest review:

Head to Head:

Abiotic versus Rings of
Saturn.

Abiotic

Abiotic while supported by a major (metal) label have made some questionable
decisions relating to production and/or clear songwriting. There are definitely
stand-out elements on "Symbiosis" and indeed some brilliant ideas,
however for the most part it remains unfocused. This is not the controlled
chaos of grind, or grind/death crossover such as Brain Drill. This is a band
with formidable talent yet not enough experience to know quite when to rein in
the ideas.

As for the production, for some reason the vocals are incredibly dominant,
leaving the rhythm guitars sounding somewhat hollow. This makes sense since the
focus is on the dueling lead lines, but the sonic real estate inhabited by the
vocals does not always allow the instrumental ideas to be fully articulated in
the mix. As a bass player, I dig what is going on but again, where the bass in
this listener's opinion would have been better serviced by an Obscura/Jeroen
Thesseling slippery, fretless fatness or a Steve DiGiorgio era Death dirty
fretless grind, Abiotic instead opt for a scooped mids, smiley face clank and
rattle.

Rings of Saturn

Rings of Saturn have on Dirgnir transformed themselves from an immature death
metal parallel to deathcore band with a gimmick (chip tune sounding leadwork)
to a focused and muscular beast. They still sound as though from another planet
but their new gig incorporates more explicitly metal elements from prog to
Swedish melo-death while remaining firmly unified in their overall vision.
again, my only criticism here is with production and some ideas.

I normally reserve my opinion when it comes to the
production of drums because I know just how hard it is to get them right. However,
consistent with some of the average riffing, the drum lines tend towards the
vanilla which makes them stand out, especially during fast sections. I like
mechanical drums, Fear Factory's Demanufacture remains one of my favourite all
time albums. However, it is a sound that should serve the cause and on Dignir,
I am not always sure that it does. The sound is poor, one dimensional and very
fake.

Conclusion: Both albums are flawed
yet fucking rad articulations of modern metal by young bands and deserve more
than a distracted cell phone speaker/ear bud listen. Stay tuned for another
article on the Rings of Saturn production/performance scandal later in the
week.

One thing I have come to comprehend over the years is the extent of the historical,
cultural and geographical depth of the Anglosphere colonial project and the way
it has shaped concepts of modernity that persist into the present. I wrote elsewhere in a reflection on traveling in the American Pacific that indulgence and
excess are key defining principles underlying contemporary Western culture.
Currently, I wish to go further and unpack extremity.

Extremity is a complex concept frequently associated with negativity even as it
does not necessarily require nor proscribe it. This conflation requires some
attention.

As with most concepts and indeed most things in nature, extremity is neither
inherently good nor evil. It is rather merely one of the ways in which we as
humans come to make sense of events consisting of significant emotional,
intellectual and physical intensity.
Physical intensity might be the result of pleasure or pain to such a degree
that it exceeds the mundane thresholds. Love, hate, passion, drugs and sex
frequently inspire us, move us to extremes.

Similarly, intellectual constructs from religion to cultural customs, concepts
of people and nation similarly encourage us to move beyond our limits of
dedication and fidelity.

To me, if there is a problem with extremity, it is due to an absence of
reflection. Unreflexive extremity is essentially a form of violence, a string
of actions with accelerating intensity occurring regardless of the context
(people, environment, society) which it is situated. Pain and conflict borne are
by the acting self and ripple outward - naturally intense actions tend to
elicit intense responses, reactions. As is the case familiar to any physicist,
large expressions of energy and force have similarly large effects on space and
time.

A warm tea cup takes a few minutes to cool. Heated iron somewhat longer and fissile
material on the verge of combustion necessitates great expenditure of energy to
reverse the build up of energy. Human relations are the same.

Meanwhile, I
would say that reflection is the coolant to extremity, it is the complex and
versatile agent allowing us to manage intensity with dignity and grace, to
scale our responses proportionately. A cool head equally lets us pick our
battles, practice kindness and know when to quit.

Thus tandem with
reflection, extremity remains a useful concept in human life. Throughout
history events of great intensity such as natural disaster, war, insistent discrimination
and other suffering require the mobilisation of efforts, energies far in excess
of the norm. Without the capacity for extremity it may be the case that the
acts of greatest compassion and generosity are impossible.

But what does this have to do with metal?

1. The gross video

One of the frequently unquestioned assumptions of metal is the juncture of
conceptual and musicological extremity. I have addressed this in part when
writing about the concept of "brutality". Indeed the terms “extreme”
and “brutal” are often used interchangeably. But where does this conceptual
extremity come from? My own thesis is that it is a necessary outcome of extreme
conditions. After all, metal's ancestors are blues and jazz, products resulting
from the response of the dispossessed, the raped, the murdered and the
exploited, from slaves in front of and in spite of their masters. Later on
extremity is articulated through rock and roll in terms of youthful rebellion
against contemporary conservative cultural mores. We see a reconfiguration of
extremity again through punk and for that matter, metal.

In its earliest stages, metal takes the extremity of rebellion further than
either rock or punk and weds it to the grotesque, the bizarre and the violent.
Metal is not content with a two fingered salute it frequently seeks to
alienate, indeed it seeks coherence in alienation. Naturally exceptions and
coercions exist, I speak only from my individual perspective on this matter and
am reflexive enough to acknowledge that the boundaries I have drawn up for
metal are likely different to those of other metal heads and metal scholars.

Conceptual extremity allows metal to achieve alienation. It may be argued that grotesquerieis merely used for shock value. However, if we dig into the concept of shock,
we have to ask, what is the purpose? Why are we shocking? Who? Is there an aim?
Is it merely an unquestioned assumption, an unfair conflation with what is labeled
adolescent? Or does it serve some other purpose? More importantly, how can it
be read in a different, more reflexive way.

One of the frequently unquestioned assumptions of metal is the juncture of
conceptual and musicological extremity. I have addressed this in part when
writing about the concept of "brutality". Indeed the terms “extreme”
and “brutal” are often used interchangeably. But where does this conceptual
extremity come from? My own thesis is that it is a necessary outcome of extreme
conditions. After all, metal's ancestors are blues and jazz, products resulting
from the response of the dispossessed, the raped, the murdered and the
exploited, from slaves in front of and in spite of their masters. Later on
extremity is articulated through rock and roll in terms of youthful rebellion
against contemporary conservative cultural mores. We see a reconfiguration of
extremity again through punk and for that matter, metal.

In its earliest stages, metal takes the extremity of rebellion further than
either rock or punk and weds it to the grotesque, the bizarre and the violent.
Metal is not content with a two fingered salute it frequently seeks to
alienate, indeed it seeks coherence in alienation. Naturally exceptions and
coercions exist, I speak only from my individual perspective on this matter and
am reflexive enough to acknowledge that the boundaries I have drawn up for
metal are likely different to those of other metal heads and metal scholars.

Conceptual extremity allows metal to achieve alienation. It may be argued that grotesquerieis merely used for shock value. However, if we dig into the concept of shock,
we have to ask, what is the purpose? Why are we shocking? Who? Is there an aim?
Is it merely an unquestioned assumption, an unfair conflation with what is labeled
adolescent? Or does it serve some other purpose? More importantly, how can it
be read in a different, more reflexive way.

Recent videos by Cattle Decapitation and Rwake as
well as not so recent videos by Cephalic Carnage feature intensely graphic,
visceral violence that a number of metal commentators have noted, is not
necessarily focused or related to musical content. The consensus seems to
coalesce around the purpose being as to shock.

I will admit, I found the Cattle Decapitation video disturbing but not
particularly because of its depictions of violence. Certainly the violence was
extreme and gory and I make no claims as to being desensitized or immune to
this sort of explicit shock even if it is all clever editing. The narrative
implications and editing sequences are definitely disgusting in the sort of way
that is satisfying to the horror/gore buff.

Rather what disturbs me is the lack of conceptual extremity. Travis Ryan, who basically
is Cattle Decapitation is also a
vegan and activist and strikes me as a rather thoughtful, critically engaged
metal head. Indeed, where there lies room for interpretation in Cattle
Decapitation's lyrics, there seems to me very little space in the video for
contemplation. Everything is explicitly represented, so much so that the
meaning of the video is unambiguous: it is a grotesque, metal representation of
the song title, "Forced gender reassignment".

I have touched on sexuality, gender and misogyny in metal in the past and want
to return to it briefly here. However, before doing so I want to address one
further concern I have with the Cattle Decapitation video. As a metal head I
possess a healthy skepticism of religion. Indeed, I am acutely aware of the
effects religion has had in the service of colonisation and the ongoing war
against diversity. But I am also a skeptic when it comes to extremity in any
position and admit to a human requirement for spirituality. In other words, I
do not see it as productive to paint all people with the same brush.

The Cattle Decapitation video depicts a stereotyped sadomasochistic, implied homosexual
committing performing/inflicting the forced gender reassignment (more on that
title later) to two Christians. While the extremity of anger here can be
understood there remain a number of problematics which merely reinforce rather
than transcend or properly critique sexual stereotypes. Forcing a woman to
become a man and vice versa through violently removing and reattaching genitals
suggests that gender is merely biological, which we all know by now, it is not.
Sex is considered biological, however, the increasing number of intersexual,
hermaphrodite and transsexual voices suggest that even a biological definition
is not fully certain.

To me, true shock, true extremity should deeply unseat more than an
individual's taste or stomach. In fact, I would argue that it is not necessary
for extremity or shock to be negative. Why was it not possible for the creators
of the video to create a beautiful version of forced gender reassignment among
consenting peers? What about representing fluidity, transformation and
possibility as key shock tactics: homosexuality remains as taboo in metal as it
does conservative Christianity. In other words, why just shock Christians?
Surely they are just an easy target. And if this is the case the extremity of
this video becomes rather one dimensional and somewhat ordinary. In fact, I
would go so far as to argue that it has become mediocre.

Shock remains an expression of intensity consonant with the concept of
extremity outlined heretofore. However, for a text to be truly shocking it
needs to exceed discursive limits and the only way to achieve this is though
reflexivity. As creators, we have to be brave enough to question our own
cognitive and imaginative limitations, have the courage to dig deep and
confront what is truly shocking: I am the other and we are in this together.

2. Musicological "safe word".

The word extreme functions as a synonym for brutal. Its intended meanings as
specific to the body making the utterance as they are a vague catch all.
Qualitatively it, I would argue that “extreme”, in terms of musicological
discourse, can be demarcated along the lines of: extremely fast/slow tempos and
changes between them, as well as an irregularly high number of time signature
changes; deliberate use of assonance, dissonance and atonality juxtaposed
against traditional concepts of melody; as well as vocal techniques which
reinforce the previous and timbres usually considered unpleasant on a pop music
or classical context.

What is interesting to me is the way these extreme elements can be quite easily
normalised and cognised in a way quite often antithetical to their creators'
intentions. As a musician and producer I love listening to the ways in which my
fellow metal heads play with creating dissonance at low frequencies and have
come to identify some of the willfully painful harmonisations such as flatted
fifths as quite pleasurable. This is not about masochism or self harm as might
be argued by those from outside of the genre but rather understanding
techniques as a creator, as an artist. The metal heads creating these sounds at
their most successful are going right out in distant tangents to produce wholly
new soundscapes. At worst, mere reiterations.

To a novice listener, all of this may be heard as impenetrable noise and because
it occurs in a musical context so deliberately contrastive with everyday
notions of musicological thought, it

is painful. But again, reflection brings
illumination. Extremity refigured as sonic, conceptual and performative intensity,
allows us new palettes with which to paint the world and new angles from which
to view it. In safety.

Ever since I was a boy, I have loved collisions
between metal and hip hop. Frankly, I blame that
song by Faith No More. Meanwhile accidental encounters with Public Enemy vs
Anthrax, the Judgment Night soundtrack, Rage Against the Machine and later
Skindred, have stitched the possibility of MCs over guitars bass and drums onto
my very soul.

Now the UK’s Hacktivist have dropped an
eponymous EP mashing djent with distinctly non-American MC-ing. And I make room
for one more patch on my hybrid hip hop hesher quilt. To be clear, this is not simply the
excitement of hybrid vigour (winky, winky): the rapping is rather good and the
djent while not particularly original possesses a quality that a lot of the
Got-djent scene lack: big ball swinging groove by a band harnessing latest sounds
and sounding like a band. The rhythmic interplay between hip hop and djent
mutually reinforces, the former grooves while the latter splutters, shudders
and slams resulting in a very listenable, coherent rhythmic complexity.